


Everybody Deserves One Memory of Their Father

by Dillian



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Feels, F/M, Family Life and Buried Pain, Memories, Tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-23 12:55:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23411869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dillian/pseuds/Dillian
Summary: Everyone should have at least one memory of their father.  This is Morgan Stark's.For the purposes of this story, she is fifteen.  She's struggling with what it means to be the daughter of a hero, left alone after he died saving the world.  Her mom and her step-father Happy do their best to help, but there are some emotions when you have to deal with alone.
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Happy Hogan/Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Everybody Deserves One Memory of Their Father

**[Fandom: MCU Post-Endgame** **  
****Characters: Morgan Stark, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan** **  
****Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.** **]**

 _Some people just have a photograph, some people don’t even have that._ Mama’s words. Morgan must have heard them like a million times in the past ten years.

 _Yeah?_ This was her, whiny, aged like thirteen or so. _Yeah, Mom? Well some people have a_ _dad_ _._ Some people… A lot of people… Most people… She’d always go off to her room and cry after she whined at Mama… Screamed at her is more like, she was a very screamy kid. Hot, ugly tears that used to make her face crusty and her nose stuffy. She’d go to bed later that night, and her pillow would taste of salt. Pointless. Absolutely zero point to any of that. What would Dad have said? Dad died because he had to, and he saved the whole goddamn world.

When she was little, Morgan used to play the video message Dad left for her. She’d play it, and she’d cry, over and over. “Everybody wants a happy ending, right?” he’d say, and she’d start to sniffle. “It doesn't always roll that way, but maybe this time, I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration…” By the time he got to the end, where he stands up and looks straight out at her and says, “I love you 3000,” she would be bawling like crazy.  
  
You know what makes her cry now? What would make her cry if she let herself think about it, but she doesn’t? Dad didn’t just say that “3000” thing on the video, _he said it in real life_ . He had to have, or she said it maybe, or somebody said it. You don’t just pull something like that out of your ass, all random and shit, just because you’re making a video. A thing like that comes from somewhere, but… Dig this: Morgan knows every cadence of every word Dad said on that video. She remembers them, see? _She doesn’t remember anything Dad said in real life._ Not really remembering, like, hearing him say it. And she doesn’t remember what he looked like, or what he smelled like even. Where did all those memories go?

“Your dad liked cheeseburgers.” This is Pop. Mama won’t talk about Dad at all. She just gets all judgy if you try talking to her about him. She just always goes straight to the “Oh, some people don’t even have a _photograph_ , etcetera etcetera.” Pop talks about him at least, even though it’s always trivial stuff. “He liked cheeseburgers, he liked fast cars, he liked wo…”

 _Women,_ that last one is supposed to be, but whenever Pop gets too close to stuff like that, stuff that would show Dad in anything but a good light, he always shuts up. Doesn’t matter anyway. Yeah, Dad liked women. There are about a gazillion photos of him all over the internet, clips from gossip columns in the 90’s and the 2000’s, and there’s all these beautiful girls all around him. Dad liked women, yeah. He liked fast cars too, and liquor, from the looks of all the gossip column photos. Knowing stuff like that about him makes him more of a real person, it makes him more real, if you understand that? It doesn’t give Morgan back her memories.

 _Shit…_ This is the only memory that might date back to her dad. “Shit,” Morgan remembers she used to say it. How old was she then, maybe six, or younger? She would say shit, even though, you know how little kids are, she knew it was a bad word. But she’d say it because it would make Mama laugh, and Mama didn’t laugh much back then. Most of her memories have to do with saying it to Mama, and then Mama would laugh and say, “Your dad taught you that, typical Tony.” Tiny echo at the very back of the memory though…

Nighttime. _Past your bedtime, what are you doing up?_ Dad’s voice? Blue-white light, a holographic display? And the taste of juice on her tongue. Strawberry-carrot, had to have been, it was her favorite. This is a memory of Dad. It has to be. _Doesn’t every kid deserve one memory of their father?_

Morgan will take that memory out sometimes, but not very often. Memories lose their strength if you look at them too much. Like that video, which used to remind her of Dad, but then it overwrote all her real memories and took them away. _I love you 3000…_ Dammit, did he say that, or did she say that, or who fucking said that? _Who said it?_

Answer: Nobody said it. A video said it. Memories lose their impact if you take them out too often. Why she never eats those strawberry-carrot juice pops anymore. Because they’re a memory right now, if she ate too many of them they would just be juice pops.

 _How come people die, Mama?_ That was her when she was what, seven? Or eight maybe? _How come people die…_

The look on Mama’s face said she had memories too, she was thinking about Dad. But she didn’t say it. “Everybody dies,” she said, and then just a start, “Your father…” She stopped, and her face went blank. “Everybody dies.”

Everybody dies. Morgan’s dad died saving the world, but he still died, and she doesn’t have a father. What she has is a video, neat, hooray. And Pop, she’s got Pop. “Your father liked cheeseburgers, he liked fast cars, and he liked…”

“Women, I know Pop, Dad liked women.”

“He was a good man, Morgan.”

_Yeah Pop, I know he was, he died saving the world._

Only once in awhile, Morgan will let herself think about that night, when it might have been her dad. And the blue-white holographic display, and a voice saying shit, and the taste of strawberry-carrot on her tongue. Dad? It fucking better be! Everybody deserves one memory of their father.


End file.
